Avery James Photography

Monday, September 20, 2010

I just want to start out this post by saying that I am super excited to be getting all caught up on my backlog of work, because I have tons of ideas for future shoots and projects, and I just need to get caught up so that I can share it all with you! :) :)

So next in the queue was the below family....absolutely gorgeous little boys and super nice parents. Unfortunately the older boy suffered a little skinned knee during the session, but he was a trooper and made it through.

We also let the boys feed the ducks and turtles some bread for entertainment....but I later went back to the same place with my son and saw all the 'don't feed the ducks and turtles anything except the given food' signs that I completely missed the first trip (oops!)...and then I took my son to another park to feed ducks and there was a similar sign about not feeding them because it leads to over-population, disease, and starvation, etc....double-oops! I had no idea...I always fed bread to the ducks when I was little - didn't you?? When did those signs go up??

Anyways - back to the pictures...below are the images chosen by the parents...you'll also notice that I'm in a transition period...I've re-designed my logo and labeling for blog and Facebook posts...it's not permanent, but will likely be used for awhile until I have time to really put some time into my new look (yes - I'll be redesigning EVERYTHING soon!! VERY overdue.). So some of these pics were formatted prior to my new look, and then some during the transition where I was still experimenting...going forward the look should be a little more stable, lol.

Also in transition is my editing style...I've been working and working and working at trying to find the right recipe for this "retro-style" editing process....if you read my blog regularly, you may recall me starting this experimentation MONTHS ago....and everytime I think I find a recipe I like, I look back at it a month or so later and decide I really don't like it.....BUT - I THINK I really like the recipe I've finally arrived at....it looks like the last pic below and the 3rd and 4th from the bottom as well....it's much more flattering to the skin tone, and to be honest - it's much easier for me to edit this way as I don't have to spend SOOOOO much time trying to get the skin tone just right in the full-color versions (a very difficult process and your eyes start playing tricks on yourself!)...so we'll see what happens....so far I really like it, but in a month - who knows....eventually when I find the right recipe, I'll be transitioning all of my editing to that style and eliminating the full-color versions...but that's a little ways down the line still....

Lastly - Make sure you're a fan on Facebook as I occasionally have specials announced only there, plus I post much more frequently there as well!

If you could learn to nail your white balance and exposure in camera you wouldn't have to worry about perfecting skin tone while editing . . . maybe that's what you should be working on rather than editing style?

Thanks for the tip "Anonymous"...I could definitely take your tip more serious if I knew your qualifications, feel free to show your name next time...But in response, I'm pretty certain that working on my style and working on my white balance go hand in hand...besides, I'd rather spend the time at home on my computer correcting white balance rather than fiddling with it when I'm out shooting taking the chance that I might miss a great moment. I'm more concerned about getting a great shot than I am with saving time in my post-processing.Thanks for the comment.